In the retail industry, the largest expenditures are typically the cost of the goods sold followed closely by the cost of labor expended. With particular regard to the retail grocery or supermarket industry, the impetus to reduce labor costs has focused on reducing or eliminating the amount of time required to handle and/or process the items or goods to be purchased by a customer. To this end, there have been a number of self-service checkout terminal concepts developed which attempt to substantially eliminate the need for the retail clerk. In particular, a self-service checkout terminal is a system which is operated by a customer without the aid of the retail clerk. What is meant herein by the term “customer” is a person who enters the retailer's store, selects his or her items for purchase from the shopping area of the store, checks out his or items for purchase by use of a self-service checkout terminal (including tendering payment for his or her items for purchase), and then exits the store subsequent to completion of his or her transaction. Hence, as used herein, a customer is distinguished from a retail clerk or other employee of the retailer in that a customer enters the retailer's store for the sole purpose of purchasing items from the store.
Hence, it should be appreciated that in regard to operation of a self-service checkout terminal, the customer scans individual items for purchase across a scanner or weighs items with a product scale and thereafter places the items into a grocery bag, if desired. The customer then pays for his or her purchases either at the self-service checkout terminal if so equipped, or at a central payment area which is staffed by a store employee. Thus, a self-service checkout terminal permits a customer to select, itemize, and in some cases pay for his or her purchases without the assistance of the retailer's personnel.
In general, a customer may have little or no training in the operation of the self-service checkout terminal prior to his or her initial use thereof. Hence, it is generally desirable to provide the customer with a number of instructions which facilitate the customer's use of the self-service checkout terminal. For example, in the case of the operation of a product scanner, it is desirable to instruct the customer as to when the terminal is ready to have item information input through the scanner. Moreover, it is desirable to provide the customer with direction in regard to proper operation of the self-service checkout terminal if it is determined that the customer is operating the terminal improperly. For example, if it is determined that the customer placed an item into a grocery bag without having first scanned or otherwise entered the item, it is desirable to direct the customer to remove the item from the bag and to cease such improper use of the terminal.
However, heretofore utilized methods for providing instruction and/or direction are often difficult for the customer to understand thereby potentially rendering the customer reluctant to use the terminal. If this causes a store employee to constantly be required to assist, investigate, or otherwise intervene into the customer's transaction, the labor savings associated with operation of the self-service checkout terminal are not realized.
What is needed therefore is a retail checkout terminal which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. What is particularly needed is a self-service checkout terminal which provides instruction and direction to a customer in order to facilitate the customer's operation of the retail checkout terminal in a “user friendly” manner.